Beetroot and Apple Soup - SO much better than you'll expect, I promise!!

Calories: Approx 138 per serving. Serves 4.

Bear with me on this one!  It is honestly the nicest soup I have tasted.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but I had some beetroot from the garden that I needed to use and I wanted a low calorie recipe.  

The vibrant colour alone is enough to brighten up any dreary day and it is warming and feel-good.  I've adapted a recipe by Allegra McEvedy.

I roasted the beetroot last night and popped it to one side until I had decided what I wanted to do with it so it was all ready today and it was super-speedy.

Ingredients

10g butter

Approx. 350g beetroot, roasted and peeled

3 Granny Smith apples 

1 1/2 Onions

1 stick celery

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 litre chicken stock

1 star anise

Pinch of dried chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

Serve with a swirl of fat free natural yoghurt and some toasted seeds but make sure you add these to the calorie count, if you're counting! I only used about a tsp of each so we're only talking about 30-35 calories.

Method

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the caraway seeds to the melted butter.

Whizz the celery and onion in the food processor. Add it to the pan with a pinch of salt and sweat over a low-medium heat with the lid on for about 5 mins.  Don't let the onion brown. 

While the onion is sweating, grate the beetroot (I used the food processor). Add the beetroot to the pan with the chilli flakes and pop the lid back on. 

Whizz the apples in the food processor (no need to peel).  Add them to the pan straight away.

Add the stock, star anise (PLEASE don't leave this out - it makes it!) and seasoning and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 mins.

Remove the star anise and blitz the soup in the blender. Add some water if it's too thick.

I swirled a tsp of fat free natural yoghurt into it and toasted some mixed seeds in a dry pan and sprinkled them on the top.

ENJOY!  And try not to eat it all at once!  It really is GORGEOUS!

Scrummy but Skinny Tomato Soup

Calories: Approx. 116 per serving. Serves 4. 

To counteract the gluttony of pancake day, I promised a scrummy but very skinny soup. So here goes....

Ingredients

2 carrots

2 sticks celery

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 yellow pepper (or red is fine)

5 tomatoes 

1 tin tomatoes (you could just use 2 tins rather than fresh too)

Chicken stock made from stock cube (fill tomato tin)

1 inch chorizo, sliced

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

A small handful fresh basil 

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp sugar

Tabasco sauce to serve 

Method

If you've got a food processor, use it! It'll massively save you time. 

Chuck the celery and onion in and chop for a few seconds. 

Heat a large pan and fry off the chorizo for a couple of mins. Add the chopped onion and celery and a pinch of salt. Crush the garlic into the pan. Keep it moving. Add the paprika and oregano. 

Pop the pepper and carrots in the food processor and chop.

When the onion is translucent add the pepper and carrots. 

Chop the tomatoes in the processor along with the basil and then add them to the pan along with the balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and tinned tomatoes. Use the empty tin to make the chicken stock in and add it to the pan too. Season. Add 1 tsp sugar if required.  Bring it to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for about 15 mins. 

Tip it into the blender and blitz. Et voila. 

I put a little Tabasco sauce on it when I serve it. 

My Fail-Safe Thai Prawn Salad...

Calories: Approx 129 per person. Serves 2

I am such a lucky girl to live in this great village. Not only is it in the beautiful countryside, home to lots of friends, it also houses The Running Fox (http://runningfoxbakery.co.uk/)- one of the best bakeries/ cafes around. People flock from miles to sample their amazing breads, pies and cakes and their famous afternoon teas. You should see the size of the things - you wouldn't eat for a week (although, i'm so greedy, i'd probably manage!). Today, my friend and I treated ourselves to the dish of the day for lunch- speciality burgers in cheese and pickle rolls. I had the pork and apple burger.  It was completely delicious and there wasn't a morsel left. Yum, yum, yum.  My friend had the beef and stilton burger and judging by her plate, she was equally as pleased with it.  She then had a toffee apple tart and I helped her with it!! I'm salivating as I type.

This doesn't happen very often but I am also going to the other fabulous eatery in the village, The Northumberland Arms for lunch tomorrow. It's a lovely pub and restaurant and it is always fantastic!  http://www.northumberlandarms-felton.co.uk/

How lucky am I?!!

Now to devise a calorie-free supper to counteract my gluttony. Hmmm, think it'll have to be.....

My Fail-Safe Thai Prawn Salad. 

I basically marinate cooked, peeled prawns in a mixture of juice of 1 lime, chilli flakes (I like mine nice and hot!), approx 1 tbsp thai fish sauce, a tsp of sugar, 1 clove of garlic, half a thumb of ginger, some chopped coriander and approx 2 tbsps rice wine vinegar then when they've been soaking for a while (as long as your hunger will allow) use the marinade as a dressing for the salad.  If I have any mango, I like to have that in the salad too - it goes so nicely together. I use a basic salad of loads of baby leaves, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes and the mango. Nothing too fancy as I don't want anything clashing or overshadowing the mango and the marinade.

This is super-fast, super-easy, super-healthy and super-deelish- perfect!

I've calculated that the calories for the marinade, prawns and mango (based on 180g prawns and 1 large mango) are 258 so that's 129 per person. Fab!!

Enjoy!

Update 3rd March 2014

I only had raw prawns tonight so I upped some of the ingredients in the marinade as I knew I'd lose some during the cooking. I also added 3 sliced spring onions. I used 2 limes, a good few splashes (prob about a couple of tbsps) of fish sauce, about the same of rice vinegar, about half an inch if ginger, a heaped tsp sugar, 1 large clove garlic, fresh coriander and loads of chilli flakes. I had some lazy lemongrass and galangal so I added those too. 

I chucked it all in a hot wok and let it cook for as short a time as possible until the prawns were cooked through. Then I put it all on top of my salad and mixed it through. It was fab. So zingy and fresh and good for the soul! Yum, yum, yum. 

The calories would be slightly higher here as I used more lime, fish sauce and vinegar and also the lazy lemongrass is pretty calorific. Still low fat and seriously good for you though!